edo Raises $15 Million to Scale Up Its Hold on The Payments and Advertising Sector
Personalized card-linked offers Edo has raised $15million, ready to set a new trend in the payments and advertising sector.
The Series C financing from VantagePoint Capital Partners with participation from Baird Venture Partners and some of its investors puts the firm’s financial nerve to a total $54.3 million.
Personalized Card-Linked Offers
Based both in Nashville, Tennesse and Chicago, edo provides personalized card-linked offers to consumers on their credit cards, debit cards and mobile devices. The platform also gives an insight into consumers spending behavior which traders use to increase their loyalty and acquire new clients.
Traders give easily redeemable discounts to shoppers according to their shopping habits.
For Customer Acquisition and Loyalty
Ed Braswell, CEO, edo says this is necessary as, “Payments and advertising are colliding; to stay competitive firms are searching for solutions to drive customer acquisition, loyalty and return on marketing investment.”
Which edo is helping them achieve.
edo has partnerships with financial institutions and card issuers, and more than 200 local and national merchants who run offers through its network. It reports to have extended more than 200 million card-linked offers to consumers nationwide in the last three months.
It has a network of more than 140 commercial banks and over 150 million cardholders. Some of its clients include Nordstrom, Target, SUBWAY, Crate & Barrel and The Home Depot.
Funds to Sign Up More Partners
edo believes the funding will help it spread its offer and content network to more SMBs and enter into partnerships with merchant acquirers, mobile payment providers and media publishers.
These expansion plans even made Tom Bevilacqua, managing director and group co-leader, VantagePoint Capital Partners excited too saying, “ edo is well positioned to transform the status quo for small businesses and make hyperlocal marketing simple, measurable and profitable.”
Shop, Win and Save Strategy
Though the mechanism sounds complex, edo is simple to use;
After a partner cardholder makes a purchase, edo identifies his or her location. It then checks the offers available for that location from its merchant network according to item purchased and notifies the buyer of the offer through email, SMS or notification. The shopper then uses the credit or debit card to redeem it and instantly the shopper’s bank account is credited.
Edo is not doing this by force. Many local businesses need to get the right customers and keep them. Edo’s loyalty and offer platform is solving traders headache by trailing shoppers habits and rewarding their purchases to keep them loyal and attract in more shoppers.
However edo could not do this on its own.
Strong Backers
Its backed by VantagePoint Capital Partners which has a focus on energy innovation, Internet and digital media. The fund has more than $4 billion in capital and has invested in over 70 companies including Identified, edo, Vook, Chacha, Solazyme, BrightSource Energy, Liquid Robotics, Scribd and WageWorks.
Baird Venture Partners also back them. They invest in early and expansion stage business services and life sciences companies.
